A few of my friends do a monthly mixtape exchange that I participate in sometimes. This month’s theme was “Guilty Pleasures”, so obviously I chose to do a mix of mid-80s Italo Disco. There’s nothing cheesier than European club music from the 80s, but I sort of totally love this stuff anyway. Old school synthesizers, robot voices, space themes — it pushes all the Taylor buttons. I put Italo on my iPod when I go running and imagine I’m in an 80s sports movie training montage, preparing for the big championship.

I’m always amazed at how this music produced in low-budget disco studios circa 1983 can still manage to sound completely modern and forward-thinking. Italo has had a big resurgence recently with the popularity of Lindstrom-style space disco, so that accounts for some of this. But still, there were some really awesome songs being written back then which hold up really well. I’ve tried to select some of my favorites for this mix, as sort of an introduction to what I like about Italo. Some obvious songs and a few weirder ones. It’s been a while since I’ve put together a mix, so some parts are a bit rough, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Let me know what you think.